his daughter in Alberta, Kansas. Mrs. James was born in Lee
county, Iowa, was reared, educated and met her husband
there. After elementary school days were over she
matriculated in the Denmark Academy and upon the completion
of her course graduated. She passed away in 1888.
Frederick James was reared in Franklin,
Nebraska., where he received his educational advantages in
the Franklin Academy, graduating with the class of 1899, and
soon after completing his education accepted a position in
the office of the Franklin Free Press, where he
remained about a year before taking up similar work for a
paper in Nelson, Nebraska, but resigned upon being appointed
deputy postmaster of Nelson. After his term of office was
over, Mr. James was employed as a carpenter for three years,
learning the practical side of the contracting business, but
his business ability soon was demonstrated and he was called
to Sioux City, Iowa, to operate a lumber yard for an Iowa
concern, leaving at the end of a year to go on the road as
salesman for a sash and door factory and for five years made
his home in Hastings, while on the road. Then the Yost
Lumber Company made him an attractive offer to come to them
as cashier of their head office at Lincoln, Nebraska, which
he accepted, remaining with them until March, 1917, when he
became established independently in business, buying the
Peterson and Sons lumber yard at Potter and since then has
been secretary, treasurer and manager of the F. D. James
Lumber Company of that city. Mr. James is a man well and
favorably known in Cheyenne county, of which he has been a
resident for three years. He leads an exceedingly active
business life, continually coming in contact with other
staple, reliable men, and at the present time he is numbered
with the county's best and most dependable citizens. Since
locating in Potter he has taken an interested and aggressive
part in all the movements for civic improvement, being a
director of schools and a member of the board. For some time
he has been a stockholder and director of the Liberty Oil
and Refining Company of Cheyenne county and has had an
important influence in shaping the policies of this
flourishing concern. In politics Mr. James is an adherent of
the Republican party, while his fraternal affiliations are
with the Masonic order, the Modem Woodmen of America and the
United Commercial Travelers.
June 23, 1904, Mr. James married Miss Inez
Van Valin, a native of Nuchols (sic) county, who was reared
and educated there and after graduation became a school
teacher, but was engaged professionally but two years before
her marriage. There are two children in the family: Edwin
and Frederick D., Jr.

W. O. WIELAND, of Mitchell, Scotts Bluff
county, is assuredly a man who well merits representation in
this history, for he is not only a pioneer of this section
of the state but has also had a full share of the
experiences marking the change of the Nebraska Panhandle
from a sparsely settled cattle country, into a section
notable for progressive citizenship, for well developed farm
properties and for thriving and attractive cities and
villages. He is the owner of an extensive and valuable
landed estate in Scotts Bluff county and is one of its
substantial citizens. He knows western Nebraska thoroughly
and is one of its loyal and enthusiastic "boosters," as he
may well be, for here he has achieved large and worthy
success through his well directed enterprise, which needed
for its consummation only such opportunities as are here
presented. Mr. Wieland owns one quarter section of land, and
most of this large tract is provided with irrigation. He has
made good improvements on the property, and is one of the
men who are doing big things on a big scale in the
furtherance of agricultural and live-stock industry. He is
also vice-president of the State Bank of Mitchell, one of
the substantial financial institutions of Scotts Bluff
county.
Mr. Wieland takes a due amount of
satisfaction in reverting to the old Keystone state as the
place of his nativity. He was born in Center county,
Pennsylvania, August 4, 1860, a son of Daniel T. and Polly
(Keller) Wieland. Mr. Wieland acquired his early education
in the public schools of his native state and was
twenty-eight years of age when he came to Nebraska and
initiated his experience as a cowboy in the great western
section that was then known principally as a cattle country.
His rise to prosperity and high standing in the community
has been won entirely through his own efforts; and he has
the greatest confidence in the splendid future of the
section that has already become known as one of the most
progressive and opulent divisions of our great state. In
national politics he is a Democrat, but in local matters he
is not bound by partisanship and votes for men and measures
meeting the approval of his judgment. In the time honored
Masonic fraternity he has received the Thirty-second degree
of the Ancient Accepted Scottish Rite, his wife

638

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

and daughter hold membership in the Eastern Star.
The year 1897 recorded the marriage of
Mr. Wieland to Miss Mary Shull, and they have two sons:
Leonard and William Arthur.

CHARLES HIGH. -- Though he has not yet
reached the psalmist's span of three score years and ten and
still posseses (sic) a full amount of physical and mental
vigor, Mr. High has the distinction of being one of the
pioneer settlers of western Nebraska. The memory of this man
compasses almost the entire gamut that has been run in the
development of this section of Nebraska from a prairie
wilderness to a populous and opulent district of a great
commonwealth; and it is gratifying to him that he has been
able to play a part in the civic and industrial progress and
upbuilding of the state and Panhandle.
Charles High was born in Illinois, July
30, 1852, the son of Lemuel G. and Sabina (Reed) High. The
father was a native of the Buckeye state where he spent his
boyhood and early youth receiving his excellent practical
education in the public schools of his home district and
after attaining manhood's estate engaged in an independent
business career as a farmer in Illinois, but died while in
the prime of his life, at the age of thirty-two years, in
1860. Mrs. High was a Hoosier by birth, but her family
removed to Illinois when she was a small child and it was
there that she was reared and educated, met and married
Lemuel High. She was a devoted wife and mother and when left
a widow with small children shouldered the responsibilities
of both father and mother to them. She lived to have the
satisfaction of seeing her son Charles develop into a fine
man, as she lived to be eighty-seven years old, passing away
in 1914.
Charles remained at home with his mother
on the farm after his father's death and while still a young
boy began to assume what farm duties he could for his age
and strength, and thus at an early age was a good practical
farmer. He attended the district school, thus gaining a good
foundation for an education which he has steadily continued
through wide reading of the best and most practical
literature and the varied periodicals that bear on all
subjects of life and commercial interests. As soon as his
years permitted he assumed management of the home place
which he conducted for fifteen years for his mother. Mr.
High read much of the west and determined to take of the
advantages offered by cheap land in the newer country beyond
the Mississippi.
Leaving Illinois, the family came to
Nebraska, locating in Dodge county, about forty miles west
of the Missouri river. There they established a new home and
Mr. High again engaged in farming. He devoted much time to
the study of farm conditions in this section, the best crops
for the climate and soil and this study was rewarded by
bountiful crops. He worked hard, was thrifty and before many
years became a man of means with capital to invest. As the,
western part of the state was becoming well known as one of
the most fertile sections Mr. High disposed of his holdings
in Dodge county and came to the Panhandle in 1913, having
great faith in the future of this part of the country.
Locating in Potter Mr. High purchased a half section of
land, where he again engaged in business as an
agriculturist, raised the land to a high state of fertility,
made many excellent improvements and at the end of five
years sold the farm at a good advance on the original
investment, having earned it all with his own hands guided
by foresight, initiative and by following modern methods in
his management. He had specialized in alfalfa for feeding,
wheat, potatoes, hogs and cattle, all of which seemed to
thrive in the Lodgepole valley under his skillful guidance.
Having been a land holder, Mr. High was not contented to be
without some landed interest and, in 1917, he bought a full
section of land north of Dix, where he farmed two years.
During this time he greatly improved the estate, so that
when he disposed of it in 1919, he did so with a handsome
profit. After retiring from active participation in active
agricultural life he became interested in the Citizens Bank
of Potter and purchased a small block of stock in that
flourishing institution. He has branched out into commercial
life as his interests include holdings in the Farmers
Elevators of Potter and Dix. For many years Mr. High has
taken an active part in communal and civic affairs, doing
his part as a prominent and progressive citizen should, as
he was county supervisor of Dodge county for six years and
after locating in Cheyenne county was chairman of the Potter
town board for two years. In politics he is an adherent of
the Democratic party while his fraternal affiliations are
with the Masonic order and the Modern Woodmen of
America.
July 2, 1885, Mr. High married Miss Susan
Edwards, at Abington, Illinois. She was a native of the Old
Dominion, but her family removed from Virginia to Illinois
when she was a small child so that she was reared and
educated in the latter state and there met and

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

639

married her husband. She was a loving wife and mother and
played a gallant part in establishing the new home in the
west. Mrs. High passed away in 1912, at the age of
fifty-three years, leaving a sorrowing husband and family.
Mr. and Mrs. High had three children: Mrs. Sabina
Catherwood, lives at North Bend, Nebraska; Mrs. Bertha
McChihan, is a resident of Potter; and Robert, who also
lives in Potter, has four children of his own.

JOSEPH HERBERT FOSTER, one of the
prominent business men of Dalton, who has taken an able part
in the development of the town and its varied enterprises,
is today regarded as one of the rising men of this section
in commercial affairs.
He was born near Charleston, Coles county,
Illinois, April 9, 1873, the son of Josiah H. and Susan F.
Foster. The father was one of the pioneer settlers of this
region as he came to Nebraska in 1888, and took up a
homestead nine miles northwest of Potter. He had been a
soldier of the Union Army during the Civil War and made
proof of his land under soldier's rights; but later moved to
eastern Nebraska and after a few years there returned to the
old home at Villagrove, Illinois, where he now lives at the
age of eighty-five years.
Herbert Foster accompanied the family when
they came to Nebraska in the early days and was educated in
the common schools of Illinois and Nebraska after coming to
this locality. Later he attended the high school at Sidney.
When his schooling was over Mr. Foster worked for about two
years on ranches in the western part of the state, spent one
more winter in school and then began teaching in Cheyenne
county under Miss Mattie McGee, then county superintendent.
He followed this profession for eight years, doing ranch
work and breaking horses in between times; then for eight
years devoted all his time to ranch and range work before
owning and managing a ranch of his own. Mr. Foster was well
versed in the business and was successful in his enterprise,
made money and entering commercial life became one of the
organizers of the local corporation known as the "Dalton
Co-operative Society," at Dalton, in 1909. The company
started with a paid up capital of fourteen hundred dollar;
it was well managed and at once began to make money and
today has a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and in 1920
did a business of nine hundred and seventeen thousand
dollars. The company is an independent corporation doing
business in lumber, grain, coal, hardware and livestock, a
general business that is of great benefit to the surrounding
country. Mr. Foster also helped to organize the Great Divide
Telephone Company (incorporated), the only incorporated
farmers telephone company in western Nebraska, with a paid
up capital of ten thousand dollars. From this it will be
gathered that he has been a man who has materially assisted
in the development of his community. At the time of the
organization of the co-operative company, Mr. Foster bought
a large block of its stock and later purchased more, being
today one of the heaviest holders. He also invested in the
stock of the telephone company and in the Farmers State
Bank, of Dalton, one of the promising financial institutions
of the Panhandle.
For two terms Mr. Foster was assessor in
Davison precinct, Cheyenne county, but takes no active part
in politics, though he votes as a Republican. At the present
time he is secretary-treasurer of the Dalton Co-operative
Society; secretary of the Great Divide Telephone company;
treasurer of the board of education of Dalton; a member of
the village council and is president of the Farmers State
Bank. As its executive head he has initiated policies that
have placed the bank on a sound financial basis, won the
confidence of the people and is regarded as one of the sound
and reliable bankers of the western part of the state.
December 4, 1905, Mr. Foster married at
Sidney, Nebraska, Miss Edith M. Davison, the daughter of
James and Mary Davison, who settled in Cheyenne county in
1885. One daughter has been born to this union, Frances, at
home.
Mr. Foster is a member of the Knights of
Pythias, at Dalton; of the Odd Fellows, of which he is
secretary; belongs to the Dalton Country Club, and attends
the Presbyterian church. His entire time is devoted to his
various interests, and today Mr. Foster is considered one of
the leading financiers and bankers in this part of the
Panhandle and state.

HUMPHREY SMITH was born at Waverley,
Canada, at the lower end of Georgian Bay, in 1847. He was
the son of Charles and Mary (Le Brash) Smith. He was the
oldest of a family of thirteen children, only four of whom
are now living. The others being: Jesse, who lives on the
old family homestead at Waverley; Frank, living at
Bakersfield, California, a carpenter by trade; and Anna, the
widow of William Hagerty, living at South River, Canada.
At the age of ten years Mr. Smith went to
Lake Superior and was reared there by different people. When
he was twenty-one he took out citizenship papers in the
United States and

640

HISTORY OF WESTERN NEBRASKA

came west to Scandinavia, Kansas, where he remained two
years. When the Black Hills country was opened he was back
at Lake Superior again, and at that time he came to Anselmo,
Nebraska. The railroad was then being built, and he opened a
store and hotel at that place and remained there until the
drouth of the early nineties. He then went to the Black
Hills, and in 1907 came to Bayard and bought a lumber yard.
He has now practically retired from active business.
While on Lake Superior he was married to
Emily Hart, and to them five children were born, all of them
now living. They are: Eugene, who farms and conducts a
barber business at Portland, Oregon; Charles, living at
Paulson, Montana; Harvey, who was a captain in the United
States army and served in the Philippines in the Spanish War
and was a training captain at Portland, Oregon, during the
late war, and is now in the insurance business; Daisy, now
Mrs. Fred Fleming, of Greeley, Colorado, and Silas, a civil
engineer of Salt Lake City, Utah.
Mr. Smith was married a second time in
1901, to Ida Reed, a native of South Dakota, and they have
two children, Sidney and Herbert, both of whom are at
home.
Mr. Smith is a member of the Methodist
church and a Republican in politics. He has had a varied
life of pioneering and adventure. He has been successful and
is now able to retire from the active struggle and enjoy a
well earned rest in the evening of life. He is respected by
his neighbors and friends as a man of honorable character
and good judgment.

ROBERT OSBORNE, who is now living
practically retired at Gering, judicial center of Scotts
Bluff county, is consistently to be designated as one of the
representative pioneers of this section of Nebraska to which
this history is devoted. As a Scotchman he possesses the
admirable traits of character for which the sons of bonnie
old Scotland are famous, and his energy and ability have
been conclusively proved by the worthy success and
prosperity he has achieved through his association with farm
enterprise in western Nebraska. He has accumulated and still
owns one of the extensive and valuable landed estates of
Banner county, and remained on this fine ranch until 1914,
when he established his residence at Gering; his retirement
having been prompted alike by his somewhat impaired health
and specially by his desire to give to his children the
excellent advantages of the Gering schools.
Mr. Osborne was born in Ayrshire,
Scotland, on March 29, 1861, and is a son of Robert and Mary
(Hamilton) Osborne, the former of whom died in Scotland and
the latter of whom came with her children to America and
located in Illinois, where she passed the remainder of her
life, the father having been long identified with the coal
mining industry in Scotland.
Robert Osborne acquired his early
education in the schools of his native land and was an
ambitious youth when, in 1881, he came to the United States
and established his residence in Illinois. Thence he later
removed to Kansas, and, in 1887, he came to western Nebraska
and numbered himself among the pioneers of the present
Banner county, where he secured and duly perfected title to
a homestead and a preemption claim. Here he lived up to the
full tension of the pioneer days; gave his zealous labors to
the development and improvement of his land and eventually
accumulated in that locality his present well improved and
valuable ranch of fifteen hundred and twenty acres, the same
having continuously been devoted to diversified agriculure
(sic) and stock-raising.
As a citizen Mr. Osborne has exemplified
distinctive loyalty and public spirit, and he served four
years as county assessor of Banner county, later having
served for a similar period as precinct assessor in Scotts
Bluff county. In politics he maintains an independent
attitude and gives his support to men and measures meeting
the approval of his judgment. In connection with his pioneer
experiences in Banner county it may be noted that he there
dug the first well on Swede Point.
The marriage of Mr. Osborne occurred in
1883, when he wedded Miss Margaret Draper, who was born and
reared in Illinois and who, traveling by train, arrived in
Banner county before he did, as he made the overland journey
with team and wagon. For nearly two weeks after his arrival
in this section of Nebraska he was unable to find trace of
his wife and children, but he eventually discovered them in
Banner county, where the reunion was a joyful one, as may
well be imagined. In conclusion is given brief record
concerning the children of Mr. and Mrs. Osborne: Robert L.
has general supervision of the old homestead ranch in Banner
county; Martha is the wife of F. F. Stafford, of that
county; Lewis likewise resides in Banner county, where he is
successfully identified with farm enterprise; Belle is the
wife of Arvil Barstow, of Scotts Bluff county; Clarence and
Hugh, W. are associated with their older brother in the
man-